1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a toner cartridge and an image forming apparatus using the same. More particularly, the present invention relates to a toner cartridge removably mounted in an image forming apparatus utilizing an electrophotographic system, an electrostatic recording system or the like, and to an image forming apparatus using the toner cartridge.
2. Description of the Related Art
Examples of image forming apparatuses utilizing an electrophotographic system or an electrostatic recording system include copying machines, printers, facsimile machines, multifunction peripherals and the like. In such image forming apparatuses, an electrostatic latent image is formed on a photoconductor, and a toner is supplied from a developing device to the photoconductor. Then, a toner image is formed on the photoconductor by developing the electrostatic latent image on the photoconductor with the toner. The toner image is transferred from the photoconductor to a paper sheet followed by heating and pressing to fix the toner image on the paper sheet.
Since toner is gradually consumed as image formation is repeated, it is necessary to appropriately supply toner to compensate for the consumed toner. For example, a hopper is provided on a developing device, and a toner cartridge is removably attached onto the hopper, thereby allowing toner to fall from the toner cartridge to the hopper and supplying the toner from the hopper to the developing device.
Then, the amount of remaining toner in the toner cartridge is detected and pixels are counted to calculate the amount of consumed toner to urge a user to replace the toner cartridge when the amount of remaining toner is getting low, thereby preventing toner shortage.
As described above, toner cartridges are expendables, and a used toner cartridge after replacement is collected by a supplier, recycled, and then sent to a user again as a recycled toner cartridge.
Meanwhile, since toner cartridges are products of a character of being distributed as expendables in a market, false products that have compatibility with genuine products only in appearance may be unfortunately available to consumers.
However, image quality has been improved in recent image forming apparatuses, and toner has been also required to deliver high performance corresponding to the improved image quality. Therefore, use of non-genuine toner cartridges results not only in failure to obtain aimed image quality but also in pollution inside the apparatuses to be a cause of malfunction.
Even in genuine toner cartridges, physical properties of a contained toner are slightly different every production lot, and such a slight difference in the physical properties according to the production lot may have an influence on the image quality in the recent image forming apparatuses that are required to provide high image quality.
Furthermore, recycling of a toner cartridge cannot be repeated again and again unlimitedly, and the number of times of the recycling that can be repeated is limited according to the mechanical lifetime of the toner cartridge body.
As described above, the circumstances surrounding toner cartridges are getting complicated, and in recent years, there has been produced a toner cartridge in which a storage section is provided where information is rewritable electronically so that the storage section holds information specific to the toner cartridge.
For example, a toner cartridge is known that is provided with a non-contact communication IC tag where information is rewritable electronically and that is configured to perform transmission and reception of data by a non-contact system with an image forming apparatus in which the toner cartridge is mounted (see, for example, Japanese Unexamined Patent Publication No. 2001-22230).
In the toner cartridge disclosed in Japanese Unexamined Patent Publication No. 2001-22230, information specific to the toner cartridge such as product number, production lot No., number of times of recycling can be held by a non-contact communication IC tag provided to the toner cartridge.
Therefore, it is possible to aim at prevention of use of false products, correction of an influence on the image quality due to toner physical properties that are different every production lot, prevention of recycling beyond the upper limit of the number of times and the like, by reading out the information held by the non-contact communication IC tag in the image forming apparatus in which the toner cartridge is mounted.
However, since the toner cartridge disclosed in Japanese Unexamined Patent Publication No. 2001-22230 transmits and receives data by a non-contact system, malfunction may be caused due to an influence given by noise generated from other electronic components in the image forming apparatus.
In view of costs, in addition, revaluation has been made on a contact system in which a storage section provided to a toner cartridge is physically connected to an image forming apparatus.
In the contact system, however, the storage section is also physically connected to the image forming apparatus when the toner cartridge is mounted in the image forming apparatus, and therefore a connecting portion where the storage section is connected to the image forming apparatus may be broken in some cases if an inexperienced user mounts the toner cartridge in an incorrect manner or in a rough manner. When the connecting portion where the storage section is connected to the image forming apparatus is broken, recycling of the toner cartridge itself will be difficult.
In addition, even if the number of times of the recycling of the toner cartridge reaches the upper limit thereof in terms of mechanical durability, the storage section is still reusable in most cases, because the storage section is basically free from a structural burden except for the time of connection to and separation from the image forming apparatus.